The House Read Online Free PDF

story. “Well,
when we came out of Jen’s we were ambushed,” I sighed. Maybe the
story would be much simpler than I thought. “By vampyre. Five of
them.” I looked around the semi-circle of people at the end of the
table but they were letting me continue without interruption. I
could feel their eyes watching me though, waiting. It was kind of
unnerving and, despite my knowing full well that shifters are
completely human in their thinking, I thought I felt a predatory
edge to them. Maybe it was just my mind flashing back to the
vampyre. They had been plenty predatory for me.
    “They didn’t
seem to have a clue about shifters. They didn’t even blink until I
Called and Stripes shifted. I don’t think they’d have taken any
notice anyway, but we were rescued. By Deacan Mackensie.” I heard
two gasps and a growl. The growl came from James, and the predatory
edge had turned into a haze around us. I sometimes forgot how scary
James could be. “I told him my name was Juliet and managed to
convince him to leave without walking me back, just about.” I
rushed through the last words, forgetting my own attempt to talk
slowly and carefully. The feel of the room was worrying. It made
the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
    “What’s Deacan
doing around here?” Hercules asked. I could feel the tension
radiating off James in waves. If he didn’t tone it down I’d be in
danger of drowning in it.
    “Cool it off
James. I can’t handle the tension level in here.” I’m particularly
sensitive to certain emotions and rage was one of them. It was
mostly either just annoying or disorientating, but with strong
emotions I couldn’t always shield completely from them. Maybe it
was because the power was from my witch heritage and I was a
shifter through and through.
    “I think, as I
am sure Trix has already thought, that the bigger problem here lies
with the vampyre,” Marie said, in her quiet, unassuming voice. I
just nodded in agreement. The statement had brought me out of
thinking about my own magic. We had decidedly bigger problems just
then.
    “What!” James
slammed his fist on the table. If it had been a modern cheap table
the wood would probably have been dented or split. As it was, more
powerful people than James had tried and failed to beat up the
furniture. I was ashamed to say that I had been one of them. I
always added ‘in the past’ onto the end of that thought. I figured
if I told myself I was calm, confident and in control, eventually
my brain would catch on and act like it.
    “If the vampyre
have gone rogue they present a much greater threat than one single
hunter, no matter how awful he may be.” The words came out of my
mouth but I lacked the conviction that James had. Mostly I think
his outrage that we thought the vampyre were the greater threat was
because he didn’t understand them. James is a hunter of hunters. I
haven’t asked how many people he’s killed but it’s more than I want
to know about. He knew nothing about vampyre except that they are
hard to kill.
    “I agree. The
vampyre were much scarier than the hunter,” Stripes put in and
Hercules nodded. James just huffed and slumped back in his
chair.
    “Trix, have you
called your grandfather yet?” Marie asked.
    “I thought I’d
talk to you guys first.” In other words, I’d been avoiding it as
long as possible.
    “Go talk to him
now, we need to know what has happened.” Marie held a measure of
calm over the meeting. I sighed again, I so did not want to talk to
my grandfather, but it didn’t seem that I had a choice. I got up
slowly and slouched out, trying to put it off as long as possible.
I had a lot of practice with that when it came to my
grandfather.
    The rest of the
house seemed eerily quiet and empty with everyone still in the
meeting room. Although I was glad that the place wasn’t full of
people. Announcing that Mackensie was in the area would be enough
to start a full-scale hunt. Even Marie wouldn’t be able